


It's Over, Kid

by StrangerWriter



Series: A Storm is Coming [3]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Brenner gets whats coming to him, justice for el
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-27
Updated: 2019-02-27
Packaged: 2019-11-06 07:25:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17935379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrangerWriter/pseuds/StrangerWriter
Summary: Together, Eleven and Hopper face Papa.





	It's Over, Kid

Despite the fact that El entered the lab that night with the same determination on her face as when she went in to close the gate, she stopped just inches from the door when she saw him. _H_ _er Papa_. He wasn’t just in her head anymore. He was really here.

Hopper patiently stood next to her, not about to make her face him on her own. El had been given permission to execute whatever damage she had so desired, and Hopper was armed with a pistol for backup.

Brenner was standing against the opposite wall of the interrogation room when he heard them enter. He hesitated before turning around, if only to show exactly how disinterested he was in speaking with whatever nobody they had brought in now. When he turned around, it was evident that he hadn’t expected to see her; he smiled with surprise the moment his eyes met hers.

Hopper hadn’t meant to injure him so quickly. He had intended to make him suffer a good bit first, but when he saw Brenner’s reaction, the gun went off. He was a good shot too, and Brenner dropped to the ground, blood immediately seeping through the front his pants. Hopper wasn’t going to allow any of that kind of bullshit today.

The gunfire startled El, but when she saw where Brenner had been shot, her eyes darted to Hopper with a quick smile- a silent thank you for making him hurt _there._

Brenner laid on the ground on his side, and Eleven hesitantly stepped up next to him. She knew that there was no way he could hurt her now, but it didn’t make approaching him any easier. Hopper moved to her side and squeezed her shoulder, letting her know that she wasn’t alone, but allowing her to take it from there. She deserved this moment.

She stared at Papa for a moment before she spoke. “You _hurt_ me.” She paused taking two breaths before she continued. “You lied. You manipulated me. You hurt my friends. I _hate_ you.” Her voice was thick and seething with a quiet, intense anger.

“Eleven, Papa never meant to hurt you,” Brenner uttered through heavy breaths. A tear dripped down his cheek.

El brought her hand down and wiped it away. “Papa, crying is for babies,” she whispered, mimicking all the times that he had said that to her.

El took a deep breath and let out the loudest, most agonizing scream Hopper had ever heard. She dropped to the ground next him, not taking her eyes off Papa’s face.

As much as Hopper wanted him to suffer, he knew that they would have to end it soon or else Brenner would bleed out, and so he waited for El to do it.

When he saw that Brenner was getting ready to speak, he knelt down on the opposite side of El and forced him over on to his back, pressing a knee hard against his chest. Brenner’s time to speak to her was long over, and he couldn’t hold back any longer. “You-“ Hopper pressed a little harder on his chest. “Are the biggest piece of shit I’ve ever met in my entire life. If you think for one second that she was too scared, too weak, to tell someone what you’ve done, you’re wrong. You are fucking pathetic.” He noticed that Brenner was having a harder time breathing, and so he leaned over, putting all of his weight on his chest. “You will never hurt **her** again,” Hopper promised.

“You…You think you are so much better than me?” Brenner rasped.

Hopper let up a little, daring the man to continue.

“Did you forget our little deal? Did you forget that **you** are the one who sacrificed her so quickly for the boy?” Brenner finished, crooking the corners of his mouth into a sick smile. It was clear that Brenner had only brought that up only to further upset Eleven, though she remained unsurprised; her and Hopper had already worked through that revelation months ago.

“Then I guess I’ll be seeing you in Hell,” Hopper spoke, unconcerned. He wrapped his hands around Brenner’s throat, gradually tightening them until Brenner’s face grew red and then purple. When he lost consciousness, Hopper had to pry his shaking hands off of him, knowing he was only moments away from killing him.

And Brenner hadn’t been _his_ to end- he wasn’t going to take that away from El.

When his hands let up, El finally took her gaze away from Brenner’s face and looked to Hopper. “It’s okay,” she urged with a nod. In that moment, El felt as though Hopper was a lot like her sister Kali. She could tell he needed this just like Kali had with all the other bad men.

“Are you sure you want me to?”

El took a breath and nodded.

She had nothing left to say, and she realized now that she didn’t need to be the one to do it; she just wanted it over with.

Hopper took his pistol out and grabbed Brenner’s chin, putting the barrel inside the unconscious man’s mouth. He slapped his cheeks, waiting with an eerie calm for him to open his eyes. He wanted Brenner to be awake when he pulled the trigger. It was a more vindictive death than it needed to be, but Hopper wanted him to feel the terror- to feel helpless- just like El had all those years, knowing there was no escape, knowing there was nothing she could do to stop it.

When Brenner finally blinked his eyes open, Hopper gave him the chance to realize exactly how his life was going to end.

El pressed her hands over her ears and closed her eyes tightly, before finally hearing the bang of the gunfire that ended her Papa’s life. She could smell the gunpowder and felt the blood splatter on her face. She opened her eyes and Hopper stood up, immediately dropping the gun and shielding her from the body. He grabbed her under her arms and lifted her to her feet, forcing her to stand up and turn away. He didn’t want El to have to see the gruesome details. His eyes quickly scanned her and realized that she was covered in Brenner’s blood.

He shook his jacket off and used the inside lining to wipe off El’s face and arms. Her hands dropped lifelessly next to her body, and she stared straight ahead while he attempted to clean her up. Though she hadn’t used her powers at all, she was just as exhausted as if she had. Hopper picked pieces of Brenner’s skull out of her hair as best he could and then picked her up, wanting to get her out of that room as quickly as possible.

“It’s over, kid. It’s over,” he promised with a whisper. Hopper wrapped his arms around her as if she were going to disappear too. El clung to him and stared over his shoulder at the horrifically mutilated dead body.  She had wanted to be sure that Papa was really gone this time. She didn’t take her eyes off him until they rounded the corner and he was gone.

Just that quick, Dr. Martin Brenner would disappear. Hopper had made the deal when he had finally convinced his contacts in the lab that Brenner was in fact, not dead. The doctor had proved to be of no use to them anymore and having him out in the world was only another risk, so they hadn’t cared much about what would become of him.

The deal was, Hopper, Joyce, and the kids would continue to keep quiet about all the new developments, the deaths, the tunnels, the _rats_. And when they tracked Brenner down, Hopper would get to be the one to end him. Of course, Hopper had always planned on letting El do the honors if she had wanted to. One way or another, Brenner was going to disappear for good.

Once they rounded another corner, El saw men in military uniforms, and she squeezed her eyes shut tightly. She clutched the back of Hopper’s shirt in her hands, expecting someone to come rip her out of his arms, though no one did. El wouldn’t have been there if Hopper hadn’t been reassured of her safety and protection. He would have found another way to get this done.

A man followed them out of the lab and back to their vehicle. Hopper set her down in the passenger seat, and without another word, they were free to go. El finally opened her eyes when she felt the car moving and watched the building disappear out her window. She hoped that was the last time she would ever have to go back inside that place.

The ride home had been completely silent.

When they got there, Hopper helped her inside and turned the shower on, leaving her alone in the bathroom.

The water was too hot, but El climbed in anyway, watching the blood wash away. She saw chunks of something in the drain, and she felt a little sick when she thought about exactly what it was. She turned away and made a conscious effort to not look down again.

El washed her body and hair and climbed out of the shower, wiping the steam away to look at herself in the mirror. She thought that she should be happier now that Papa was gone, but she felt nothing, just numb. She wrapped a towel around herself and walked to her bedroom, feeling too exhausted to even get dressed. She dropped the towel to the ground and climbed into bed wearing nothing. Despite being too hot in the shower, her sheets felt too cold now, and her wet hair dripped down her back, causing her to shiver. She curled up as small as she could to try to get warm again.

Hopper took a quick shower too, attempting to wash away every trace of Brenner that he could.

When he finished, he got dressed and picked up their pile of bloody clothes from the bathroom floor, throwing them in the trash.

El hadn’t said a word since before Brenner’s death. Hopper was feeling anxious about leaving her alone, so even though her bedroom door was wide open, he knocked on the door frame and waited for her approval to come in. She turned over in bed and looked at him, silently giving him consent to enter.

Hopper pulled a chair up next to her bed and sat down. El curled back up on her side and gave an exhausted sigh, closing her eyes. Neither of them had to speak; they were both simply comforted by each other’s presence. Too exhausted to even open her eyes, El quickly fell asleep.

It was the first completely dreamless night of sleep that she could ever remember having.

**Author's Note:**

> So now that that's all out of my system, I can get back to your regularly scheduled Jopper and Mileven fluff


End file.
